PC Game Review: Skyrim DLC: Hearthfire

It is great to see the Hearthfire DLC finally released on the PC so that PC users have access to domestic bliss in Skyrim.

This new add-on allows you to build a house in one of three locations, providing you are in good standing in that hold. Then you can go about building a house, collecting supplies, and making the manor house of your dreams. There is not much skill required and if you have been at the game for a rather long time you will probably have more than enough to build the place in no time. The fact that your House Carl can buy supplies and even furnish rooms helps things out quite a bit as well. Iron & more precious supplies, like glass, have to be sought out from merchants in the major towns.

I found some stability problems with the DLC and there were a few times when I was unable to buy things even though I had plenty of money. There are no skills to develop while building house so this is more a side-quest than an addition to game-play. Granted you might have to fend off some marauding baddies, but your staff tends to be more than a match, even your Bard can probably kick some skeever tail.

Once you have your house, you can build a stable, farm, and mill. You can decorate your house with all sorts of trophies, furniture, and goodies. Unleash your inner interior designer. If you are married in the game you can bring along your wife (naturally) but oddly you can only adopt a child, not “produce,” one yourself. It seems somewhere in the process of becoming the Dovakin you became sterile. Maybe absorbing all those dragon souls messed with things.

I am not sure that this is quite Sims for Skyrim, but it is something close.

Ultimately, this is an odd addition to the normal Skyrim fare. However if you always wanted a nice big house in the country-side of now relatively peaceful Skyrim, this is the DLC for you. If the houses in the towns of Skyrim cramp your style then by all means get Hearthfire, and at $5 on Steam it is not that expensive anyway.

Hearthfire is rated M (Mature) by the ESRB. This game can also be found on: PS3, Xbox 360.